Major car bombing foiled at Israeli mall

Sunday, March 22, 2009 |
Israel Today Staff

Tragedy was averted Saturday evening in the northern Israel port city of Haifa when explosives packed into a parked car at a local mall failed to go off, and police sappers disarmed the bomb before terrorists could rectify the mistake.

The bomb was discovered after security guards at the mall heard a small explosion and called police sappers in to check out a suspicious vehicle.

It was then discovered that the car was loaded with over 50 pounds of explosives, only a small portion of which succeeded in detonating.

Israeli malls are usually very crowded on Saturday evenings after opening back up following the Shabbat.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert noted that a major catastrophe had been only narrowly averted, and warned that the Palestinians continue to try in every way to massacre Israeli Jews.

Police later reported that the car used in the attack belonged to an Arab resident of Jerusalem, but said that it could have been stolen prior to the attack.

Want more news from Israel?Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates